Airlines and Retailers Have Good Week

When was the last time you saw airline stocks up double digits? Delta, United, US Air and AMR all up about 10 percent today. What's going on?

Analysts falling all over themselves to describe the positive comments made by the companies this week. Morgan Stanley highlighted some of the positive trends of the last few days:

1) AMR said they continued to see strong close-in bookings;

2) US Air says revenue is improving rapidly and says 2010 industry revenue could grow by as much as 10%;

3) Delta expects strong demand trends in 2010;

4) United continues to see improvement in corporate and premium cabin bookings.

Also important: Continental successfully priced $230 million in convertible notes.

Maybe Cyber Monday really did matter: after the disappointing same store sales reports for November, no one expectd much from November Retail Sales, but they were far better than expected.

Why the discrepancy? Today's retail sales report includes electronics sales from companies like Best Buy(which will be reporting next week) and Radio Shack , as well as online Cyber Monday sales. None of that is included in the same store sales.

Throw in the colder weather, and retailers are putting together a good week: Kohls up 3.3 percent, Lowes up 3.2 percent, Macy's up 6.3 percent.

Meantime, home builders continue to struggle. Hovnanian down 9% this week, homebuilders drifting lower all month.